nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Hating on Dan Wolken thread

levander

Wolken may not be the only villain in this story. It’s entirely possible Justin’s family timed this really poorly to screw us. We got another thread about that. This thread is to discuss Dan Wolken’s role, the guy who wrote the USA Today piece that made this story blow up.

Reading the piece, it’s pretty clear to me Wolken portrays it like Justin has already made a decision to transfer.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2018/12/17/justin-fields-transfer-georgia-after-freshman-season/2339522002/

He leaves out key pieces of information, possibly out of sheer ignorance, like notifying a team of an intent to transfer is part of an NCAA process that allows you to talk to other teams about transferring, Justin’s situation at UGA is not ideal. It would be weird to me if he didn’t talk to other teams about possibly transferring.

And now we’ve got a story on DawgNation saying Justin’s Mom has said no decision has been made yet. So it’s pretty clear to me that factually, Wolken’s story is fallacious, FAKE NEWS as they say in the industry these days.

The only bit he’s got in his story about trying to verify his anonymously sourced story is at the very bottom he goes, “A message left with the Georgia athletics department was not immediately returned.” He didn’t even “leave a message” with the football team, just the athletic department. He had no intent of trying to verify that piece.

And Wolken is on Twitter last night defending his piece:

https://twitter.com/DanWolken/status/1074888995266576385

If he doesn’t know how his story could harm UGA recruiting, he shouldn’t be covering college football. You don’t have to be Jeff Sentell to understand this could cause people not to sign.

USA Today has a problem with this Dan Wolken guy. I’ve followed this paper at times in the past. And they’ve always presented themselves as a light news newspaper that just tells you what’s going on without a lot of spin. Maybe they’ve decided to shelve that image altogether? Maybe it’s just a problem with Wolken? I don’t know,

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

RxDawg

I'm actually in the camp that I do not think this will effect our recruiting in the slightest. Maybe with a player or two, but big picture no. All of this speaks more about Fields than UGA.

HumbleYourself

I have no problem with recruits knowing the situation. Like us as fans hearing the news sets off an emotional response which will eventually fade away into more rational appreciation of the situation with time and understanding. The timing puts our recruits making decisions based on emotional responses. The dead period makes it harded for coaches to address confusion as well.

Its not that recruits knowing is the problem...if it was announced right after SECCG time exists so that everyone knows and can process rationally and discuss how it effects them with coaches.

levander

@RxDawg said:
I'm actually in the camp that I do not think this will effect our recruiting in the slightest. Maybe with a player or two, but big picture no. All of this speaks more about Fields than UGA.

It might not affect who ends up signing this year, and my guess is it won’t. But a good athlete leaving your team as a freshman isn’t the spotlight you want put on your team.

Justin might end up transferring and so in the end the gist of the piece might end up being true, but that doesn’t change the fact that it hurts recruiting. For a guy to make a living covering college football and not understand this hurts recruiting is beyond the pale to me.

greygoose01

BA went off on Wolken in the podcast today lolz

dawgitimafan

@levander said:

@RxDawg said:
I'm actually in the camp that I do not think this will effect our recruiting in the slightest. Maybe with a player or two, but big picture no. All of this speaks more about Fields than UGA.

It might not affect who ends up signing this year, and my guess is it won’t. But a good athlete leaving your team as a freshman isn’t the spotlight you want put on your team.

Justin might end up transferring and so in the end the gist of the piece might end up being true, but that doesn’t change the fact that it hurts recruiting. For a guy to make a living covering college football and not understand this hurts recruiting is beyond the pale to me.

I think his point is that the recruits should no if they are committing to a school that's losing a number 1 QB. I don't think he cares about UGA's recruiting class and so incidentally I don't care about him. While somebody may be pulling his strings I'm not a fan of killing the messenger. It's not false news so I don't think wolken is really the person to blame, jmo

dawgitimafan

I think Kirby would look quite bad if this came out after signing day and recruits found out Kirby knew of Fields plans, which he obviously does. We could have some very angry recruits talking trash about UGA

Kasey

If I could edit BA's joke about Wolken, it would be...

"When Wolken descends from Mount PIOUS"

not Olympus, Pious works better

Bankwalker

The story has been verified since last night. Im not sure what else he should have done. I also agree that IF the coaches know a significant piece of their future is leaving then they should be updront about it. Kirby claims to be upfront and honest with the recruits. If that's true then the majority of the '19 class already knew.

levander

@HumbleYourself & @dawgitimafan

I’ve got no problem with the recruits knowing. It’s the misrepresenting of the situation, which I’m guessing is just due to Wolken’s ignorance of college football. By far the closest to the actual source we have is that no decision has been made. And that makes a lot of sense. Because while Justin’s situation is not ideal at UGA, it’s not a terrible situation either. So you talk to other schools to see what their deal is. Wolken’s article leads you to believe a decision has already been made. That’s what I was talking about in the OP. Not that I just don’t want the recruits to know what’s going on.

And with regards to killing the messenger... The messenger’s job is just as important as anyone else’s. In some ways more so. If the messenger is running around delivering messages incompletely that lead to distrust and even warring amonsgst kings? Off with his head! I can’t imagine how you could think otherwise.

levander

@greygoose01 said:
BA went off on Wolken in the podcast today lolz

Cool. I’m about to get in my car to head home. I know what I’ll be listening to!

dawgs18

Wolkens problem is he always reports said “facts” with implication to the worst for uga - he has always done that - he analyzes uga with clear anti uga bias - not sure what his deal is but he isn’t very knowledgeable on CFB , tends to make OFF picks more than not and is in general a fluff trash CFB analyst